Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Summer Bucket List - July Edition

Our summer bucket list adventures went full throttle in July.

* Zoo Trip: We kicked off the month with a long holiday weekend for July 4th. In May, my mom gifted our family with a family membership to the Sedgwick County Zoo. We took advantage of a cooler, cloudier Friday in July and headed over there for a picnic lunch with the animals.

* July 4th Parade & Festivities: The next day, Mackie enjoyed her first-ever ride in the Downtown Hutch July 4th parade. She rode her decked out bike (thanks to grandma) while grandma/papa walked beside her as a part of the TECH float.

Later that day, we enjoyed family time with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandma/papa Conkling, as well as blowing stuff up with our neighbors. Nothing says Happy Birthday, America like setting things on fire!

* Pretty Prairie Rodeo: We enjoyed a 30-minute trip out to Pretty Prairie for their annual rodeo. Of course it was hot. Of course is was humid. But it was much more pleasant than the last time we did the rodeo with both kidlets in tow (back when Mackie was a toddler; Brax was a hungry baby; and they both clung to mama in the 100-degree heat). Both kidlets enjoyed riding a horse and jumped away energy on the inflatable slides while waiting for the rodeo festivities to start. They were enthralled with the cowboys and the big bulls!

* Swim lessons at the Splash: We wrapped up another successful summer of swim lessons. It was the first time in having kidlets that Jack and I did not have to get in the water - Brax finally was old enough for the preschool class! The little stinker refused to put his head under water for Miss Kaylee (our fave preschool teacher!), but - get this - not 30 minutes after his final lesson, he went to grandma's house for a swim and completely submerged his head. Again, little stinker. The kid is now a fish in the water and even doing some underwater swimming. Love seeing his progress!

Mackie, meanwhile, graduated from Level 2 and will be moving up to Level 3 next summer. We're excited to see her stroke refinement and get stronger. It helped being a part of swim team, too.

This wasn't on our bucket list, but it was incredible watching (in slow-motion) the "famous" July tornado that went about 2 miles past our house. It was the closest I'd ever come to a tornado - and it was fascinating!

* Running races: We've enjoyed several races as a family this summer. In July, Mackie and I took on one of our favorite (and HOT!) races, the Titan 10K and 1-mile fun run. After running the hot/humid 6.2-mile race, I went with Mackie to do the 1-mile fun run. She did great and ran a PR! She's definitely learning how to pace herself and not start out too fast so she can finish strong.

More to come - there's still plenty that we conquered these first two weeks in August!